If only, Wal-Mart. If only

(Hello, everybody! Thus ends my prolonged blog-absence; I had rather more important things to do last week, and continuing intertube problems [for which I blame the angered Ted Stevens] this week. Apologies to my loyal readers -- both of you.)

The Wall Street Journal has a remarkable story today about Wal-Mart, whose profit margins depend largely on substandard wages and working conditions, quaking in fear at the thought that a 2008 Democratic victory will (via the desperately needed Employee Free Choice Act) force unionization on them. Look:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings... The Wal-Mart human-resources managers who run the meetings don't specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's election, but make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in, according to Wal-Mart employees who attended gatherings in Maryland, Missouri and other states.

"The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union,'" said a Wal-Mart customer-service supervisor from Missouri. "I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," she said.

Well... as heartening as this is to an old social-democrat crank like me, I have to caution: EFCA is just a small step toward restoring unions to the role they should play in the American workplace, a process which (if it happens at all) will take decades. Nothing will come overnight.

Besides, today's Democratic Party is hardly the working man's best friend; it is riddled with "business-oriented Democrats" like Chuck Schumer, Bill Richardson, and Mark Warner (not to mention Evan Bayh, and I should add that if he's chosen as Obama's VP I will have to consider ritual suicide). Once in power, it is an open question whether this party can overcome its ties to the business community and work to help the people who really need it.

Certainly from Wal-Mart's perspective, it's much less effective to fight and demonize Democrats than it is to just buy us. The very same WSJ article tells the tale:

So while I'm not going to say that this "RUN! DEMOCRAT REVOLUTIONARIES!" thing is just a corporate head-fake -- that's a level of mouth-frothing I'm not yet ready to embrace -- it's certainly true that one election and one new law won't bring unions into the retail market the way Wal-Mart (for whatever reason) wants people to think. We should work for even small steps in that direction, of course, but we shouldn't let our opponents define the debate.

Just a note on today's economic figures

You may have heard about the Labor Dep't statistics released today showing a little decline in the unemployment rate and a "smaller-than-expected" contraction in jobs. This has caused Drudge, typically, to flip shit and argue that the economy is rebounding. Now, this is obviously insane for a couple different reasons -- but I want to remind everybody that the real story is still wages:

Companies are cutting working hours, even as many avoid layoffs. Those working part time because of slack business or out of failure to find full-time work swelled from to 5.2 million in April from 4.9 million in March. In percentage terms, employees working part time involuntarily climbed to the highest level since 1995.

The average weekly pay for rank-and-file workers — about 80 percent of the American work force — fell $3.55 in April, to $602.56 in inflation-adjusted terms. This figure has been generally falling since the end of 2006. Gains in pay have been canceled out by the soaring costs of food and energy.

Awesome rebound!

UPDATE (6 PM): Mike Shedlock argues that the numbers are simply bogus.

Real Wages Still Declining

To pivot from the horserace for a minute -- here's a reminder, from the invaluable Economic Policy Institute, of what our eventual nominee (whoever it is) will be up against:

(click for full size)

This tracks yearly change in real earnings for non-management service and blue-collar workers. Notice which direction they are moving. This will be the issue of 2008.

...Remember in August when everyone said the subprime crisis was just a blip, an isolated case, and there was nothing wrong with the economy? Yeah, about that...

(via Chris Hayes)